圆果花楸 yuan guo hua qiu

Aria globosa (T. T. Yü & H. T. Tsai) H. Ohashi & H. Iketani.

Trees, rarely shrubs, to 7 m tall. Branchlets blackish brown when old, terete, rusty brown pubescent when young, soon glabrous, with few small lenticels; buds ovoid, 5–8 mm, apex ± acute; scales several, glabrous. Leaves simple; petiole 1–1.5 cm, sparsely puberulous or glabrous; leaf blade pale green abaxially, dark green adaxially, ovate-lanceolate or elliptic-lanceolate, 8–10 × 3–4.5 cm, lateral veins 8–11 pairs, anastomosing toward margin, abaxially rusty brown pubescent along veins, gradually glabrescent, adaxially glabrous, base cuneate, rarely subrounded, margin sparsely sharply serrate, nearly entire basally, apex acuminate. Inflorescences paniculately compound corymbose, 3–6 × 2–5 cm, 15–21-flowered; rachis, pedicels, and hypanthium abaxially rust-brown pubescent. Pedicel 5–9 mm. Flowers 5–8 mm in diam. Hypanthium campanulate. Sepals reflexed, ovate-triangular, 2–2.5 mm, apex obtuse. Petals white, ovate to obovate, 4–5 × 3–3.5 mm, sparsely rusty brown pilose, base shortly clawed, apex obtuse. Stamens 20, unequal in length, longer or shorter than petals. Styles 2 or 3, not exceeding stamens, glabrous, connate basally. Fruit brown, globose, 1–1.2 cm in diam., 2- or 3-loculed, with orbicular small lenticels, with an annular scar. Fl. Mar–May, fr. Aug–Sep.

Slope forests, shrub thickets; 1000--3000 m. Guangxi, Guizhou, W Yunnan [N Myanmar].

One of us (Spongberg) believes that Sorbus paniculata is a related taxon and could be placed here.

Sorbus globosa was lectotypified (Sun, M. & Q. Lin. 2008. Guihaia 28(3): 295) after publication of the family treatment for the Flora of China.